Those all round good eggs at DLA Piper have just released their Be Aware March Edition of their monthly employment law newsletter. You can click through to it here.

There’s a really good article by Mary Clarke looking at Salary Sacrifice, Childcare Vouchers and the changes that come into play in April.

If you run one of these schemes it’s worth a read. If you don’t offer a Childcare Voucher scheme for your employees it’s still worth looking at – even after the changes. As a low cost benefit that is greatly appreciated by parents it’s a good way of extending your benefit programme at a time when costs are under scrutiny.

If you need any further help on Salary Sacrifice or Childcare Vouchers please drop us a line here.

Mark is a client and friend of mine I have known now for probably ten years. I’ve learned a lot from Mark over these years.

One of Mark’s mantras is that “the Universe will provide”. In other words do all the right things in life and things will happen for the good – often out of the blue. And funnily enough they do! Mark has held some really good positions in various companies in the horticulture sector At times things haven’t worked out but Mark’s positive attitude has ensured that things fall into shape. It’s also a self fulfilling prophecy. It’s a bit like Gary Player’s often quoted retort to a journalist when he said “the more I practice, the luckier I get”.

Mark is one of the people that I make a point of speaking to when I need an injection of positivity. Sometimes, in the early stages of thinking about leaving behind the well paid job I had doubts, insecurities, worries about it all. A phone call or lunch with Mark is all that it takes to inject a positive outlook and for me to see things with added clarity and vision. Everyone should have someone like Mark.

Thinking today about Mark’s mantra I felt a sense of worry. Not for my own future but for that of a whole generation of the UK population. The worrying thing for most people in the UK – and this cuts across age, sex, income – is that they believe the Universe (or more accurately the Government or some mythical benefactor) will provide for them. However, unlike Mark who actually puts in an enormous amount of unseen effort (think swan under the surface here) these people are doing little or nothing. And that’s worrying.

As a nation we are sleep walking towards a very poor old age with the prospect of continuing to work till we are all well into our late 60’s. The latest Government changes to the State Pension Age just underline that. Compulsory pensions when they come will simply lull most people into a false sense of security as to what they will get when they retire. More of all this in later posts.

Meanwhile, I’ll carry on worrying and hope that the adage about the cobbler’s children having the worse shoes doesn’t apply to financial planners.

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